1. "Regeneration" was without means, by "direct speaking," while "conversion" was often by use of means.
2. "Regeneration" was the initial "implanting" of the "seed" or "principle of life," and "conviction" represented the state of a newly "begotten" soul in the "womb" of darkness, longing to be freed and delivered from the "womb," to see the light, and finally, the actual "delivery" or "birth" of the soul represented "evangelic conversion."
3. The "new birth" had three distinct stages to it. The first stage is "regeneration," the second stage is "conviction of sin," and the final stage is "conversion."
This was the first position taken by the leaders in the "Hardshell Baptists." It had two legs.
I. It did not totally separate means in the "new birth." It did eliminate means in "regeneration," thus "bending the tree" in a direction that would guarantee future change.
II. It included a belief in the new idea that Jesus speaks words directly to the sinner in "regeneration" and "quickening."
The Beebe-Trott "Birth Process"
Elder Gilbert Beebe said - "Regeneration, as we understand it, like generation, involves the begetting, conception and birth, of that which is generated..." (Here he gives a "broad definition" to the term "regeneration" and has this formula: begetting+conception+birth = regeneration)
And again:
"In the order of regeneration, or the development of the children of God, no intermediate agencies are employed, no system of means can bring forth the promised seed, as was demonstrated in the case of Hagar and Ishmael; it is the immediate work of God himself. "Of his own will begat he us, with the word of truth." - James i. 18. How, by the word of truth? Jesus saith, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." - John vi. 63. In the preceding chapter Christ testified of the power of that word which is spirit and life, by which the children of God are begotten, quickened and born; saying, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live." - John v. 25...The word of the Lord, which is Spirit, and which is life, which liveth and abideth forever, is that by which regeneration is affected; not merely by the Scriptures in their letter, nor reading or preaching them, but the words which Jesus himself speaks to the individual persons who are made to hear and live. Hence Peter could say, "To whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God." - John vi. 68, 69. Until this word, which is spirit and life, is spoken by Christ himself, who is the quickening Spirit, or life-giving Spirit, to an individual, that individual is in a state of alienation from God, dead in trespasses and sins, and utterly beyond the reach of any power, short of that which is in Christ, to quicken him. "As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." When a sinner is thus quickened, the incorruptible seed, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever, is implanted in his heart, and the evidence of this implantation is first given by a sense of the purity and holiness of God, and the spirituality of his law, contrasted with a sense of guilt, pollution and just condemnation of the person to whom this communication is made, and consequently a struggle for deliverance. The ear is now opened to hear the thunders of Sinai, and the eye is made to see the justice of God as a sin avenger; a brokenness of heart that he or she, as the case may be, has been all their lifetime in open rebellion against so holy, just and righteous a God, who has followed them with his mercies all their days. A sense of his goodness leads them to repentance, contrition and humble acknowledgment of their guilt. Now the quickened and awakened sinner becomes burdened with the load of depravity, which they vainly try to put away from them; an effort is made to reform; a resolution is formed to sin no more; tears flow in anguish of spirit, and prayers are offered for pardon; the sinner is pricked in the heart, and cries out, Men and brethren, what shall I do? But all that he can do for himself, and all that kind, sympathizing friends can do for him, does not ease his pain or lighten his burden. At length he concludes there is no hope in his case, he sees that all his efforts, cries and tears, have been unavailing, and all hope of salvation seems to be shut out from his view.
Now all this conviction, contrition, lamentation and distress, is the legitimate consequence resulting from life implanted, and indicates to all who know experimentally the way of life, that the poor sin-burdened soul is drawing near to the time of his birth, or deliverance. He who has thus arrested him, and brought him to a sense of his lost and helpless estate, will perform the work in his own time, but the burdened soul must wait until "God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, shines in [not into] his heart, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." -2 Cor. iv. 6. Or, as Paul relates his own experience, "When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me." - Gal. i. 15. Then by the revelation of Christ in us the hope of glory, the way of salvation through him is brought to view, the burden of guilt is removed, the blood of Christ is applied, the demands of the law are canceled, the curse is removed, the prison doors are opened, the captive is delivered, the love of God is shed abroad in the heart, old things are passed away; behold all things have become new; a new song is put in his mouth, even praise unto God, the gospel pours its joyful sound into his quickened ears, his goings are established and he is a new creature..."
"We have endeavored to give our views on the subject proposed by our brother, and in doing so, to trace the generation of the children of God, as a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation; which are born, not of a corruptible seed, but of an incorruptible seed, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. What we have written are our views, and what we have understood to be the views of the Old order of Baptists, from the days of John; but if we are mistaken in our views, (and we are liable to be) or in any part of them, we hope that our brethren will in all christian kindness point out to us the more excellent way.
("REGENERATION AND THE NEW BIRTH" - Middletown, N. Y., September 1, 1857 - Editorials of Gilbert Bebee Vol. 4) (http://www.geocities.com/docsofgrace/)
Elder Trott writes:
"Brother Beebe: - I received, a short time since, a letter from brother Davis S. Woody, of Missouri, in which he makes the following request:
"I now come, brother Woody, to give you my views, briefly, on the new birth, as to what it is. Regeneration, as I hold it, is the implanting in an individual, or adding to his mind, that incorruptible seed which Peter speaks of, even the spiritual seed of Abraham, which is Christ, Christ in you, and which is that life that was in the Word, which is the light of men; for Christ is the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world John 1:9. Hence this individual sees his relation and accountability to God and to the law, and sees his sinfulness as he never saw or felt it before, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. He sees this as the natural man cannot see it, for the law is spiritual. And he so sees and knows the reality of these things, that he cannot shake off or drive them from him as he could former impressions, which arose from mere fleshly views, or a natural conscience. The reason of this is, that whilst the implantation of this seed is of God, and of God only, and not through any instrumentalities of men, the seed itself being life and light, quickens the mind and conscience to such a sense of the reality of these things, that the individual feels himself as standing before a heart searching and rein trying God; and in the ultimate view of this, and of the purity of the law, all his goodness and doings are turned to corruption, and he falls helpless at the footstool of mercy, or at the feet of that God against whom he has sinned. Being thus stripped and killed by the law, he is prepared to be married to another, even Christ, or brought to view in his relation to a crucified and risen Jesus.
The new birth I understand to be the being born again of the incorruptible seed by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. Whether by the word of God in this text is understood the essential Word, who is God, or, as is frequently intended by the word of God, that which God directly speaks or communicates to a person, is immaterial, for both ideas are true. For Christ said, "Verily, verily I say unto you, The hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live" John 5:25. This person being, as we showed, dead, killed by the law, is now made to hear the voice of the Son of God, the proclamation of pardon and salvation through Christ's atonement. And every child of grace knows that it took something more than the power of man to make him hear; that it came with the power and as the word of God; and he already having Christ or the seed of life in him, he is enabled to receive, believe and rejoice in that word, and feels himself standing in a new relation to God, no longer a condemned and banished one, but a pardoned, justified one; has peace with God, and is enabled to cry Abba, Father; that is, he feels that God is his Father. Thus in the new birth there is a striking correspondence to the natural birth; to each there is a seed implanted, and then a quickening by which life is manifested. And when the natural child is brought to the birth, the sorrows of the woman in travail, the fetus being broke loose from that by which alone it had been hitherto nourished, strongly represents the agonies and the killing by the law belonging to the second birth. But then there is a contrast in the births. In the first birth the child comes into the world in the image of Adam, an alien from God and subject to pain, disease and death, as the fruits of depravity and condemnation. In the second birth, he comes into the kingdom of heaven, where grace reigns through righteousness; has communion with God as a Father through Christ; stands manifested as one with Christ; and having a common interest with all the members of Christ's body, in all that Christ accomplished by redemption, in all the promises of God, and in that inheritance which is reserved for the saints in light. ("THE NEW BIRTH" From "SIGNS of the TIMES" - Vol.21 - 1853 - Writings of Elder Samuel Trott, pages 404 - 409)
"Beloved Brethren: - In addressing to you this token of our particular relationship and regard to you, we would call your attention to the subject of the new birth. This doctrine in all by-gone ages has been almost as distinguishing a mark of the Regular Baptists, as is baptism. Although the multitude bearing the name of Baptists have dwindled down the idea of a second birth to a mere wordy phantom, a change which an individual can procure, if not accomplish for himself by his efforts, and others claiming to be Regular or Old School Baptists, have substituted for it, imaginations of the human mind, having no direct resemblance to the idea of a birth, the scripture testimony still is: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.""
"We might go on to notice the effect of the conception of this incorruptible seed, how it produces faith in God, quickens the man to a sense of his relations, and accountability to God, of the spirituality and broadness of the law, and of the sin in his acts, thoughts, and nature; of the distress occasioned thereby; of the darkness that covers the whole operation within, hiding all excepting certain external effects from the individual view, so that he is a mystery to himself, and can tell no more why he is thus, than he can tell of the wind whence it cometh or whither it goeth. We might show that whilst the soul is thus quickened to such a deep sense of the law or of sin as being against God, that it still evidently is not changed from a natural to a spiritual soul, and therefore it cannot receive the things of the Spirit, or the things freely given us of God, but entirely looks to the deeds of the law as the way of acceptance with God. But we forbear, and come to the BIRTH. We are told that Sarah bear to Abraham a son at the set time of which God had spoken to him; and that Abraham called the name of his son whom Sarah bear to him, Isaac; also that Sarah said on the occasion. "God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me." And she further said, "Who would have said unto Abraham that Sarah would have given children suck &c." Gen.21:1-7. The name Isaac signifies laughter, as Sarah says, God has made me to laugh. Laughter is an expression of sudden, but transient and light joy. The name Isaac therefore and Sarah’s being said to laugh, is strikingly expressive of that joy which is experienced when a person is first born again, or brought by faith to behold the light of the Sun of Righteousness into liberty. It is all joy and excitement at beholding the way of pardon and acceptance with God. But as it is a general, but rather superficial view which the child of grace has at this time of the way of salvation, and not that full understanding which he has afterwards when taught of Christ as the way, his joy is easily and quickly turned again to sorrow and grief, and his light is obscured soon by clouds and darkness. Still with the very first burst of joy, there is a feeling in the individual that it is God and no other that hath made me to laugh. There is also a feeling as with Sarah, that all who hear shall laugh, and he is therefore anxious for the moment to impart the good news to others, some under the idea of publishing it to all, and therefore as having a kind of preaching excitement. As Isaac retained his name of laughter through life, so the believer in his after pilgrimage has his times of this transient excitable joy...But brethren, let us not stop merely to laugh with Sarah, let us inquire what has transpired to occasion it."
Observations
This model is closer to Scripture. Yet, it is still wrong. It is a "compromise position." It still makes conversion and gospel preaching a necessary means in the eternal salvation of the elect, in their "rebirth," though not in their initial "regeneration." It is also in accord with the first Old Baptist "articles of faith," for it espouses the view that "all the elect will be regenerated (and then convicted) and converted." In preaching the "three stages view" of the "new birth," the first Hardshells could be said to believe yet this article of the primitive faith. They were also fairly innoculated against the charge that they were entirely against means in the "new birth," though yet affirming that there were no means in "regeneration" and in "quickening."
As I said, it was a "compromise position," and one we would expect to find, as historians, to "fill the gap" in the movement's history, from the first "rise of the Hardshells" to their present day condition. There has been a clear change or evolution in doctrine, respecting the new birth, conversion, perseverance, and on predestination that has "come on the heels" of the first grand division.
This model makes "conception" to equal the "planting" of "seed" (first stage). In this stage, the person is "regenerated" or "quickened" (the first Hardshells generally saw the terms "regenerated" and "quickened" as synonymns). This model also makes the experience of "conviction" as a post-regenerative experience, correlating to the time the "generated" person is in the womb, in that place of darkness and imprisonment.
In chapter 50 I cited various "experiences of grace" as given by many leading Hardshells, many veritable "founding fathers," in which they all spoke of experiencing the law's convicting sentence, coming to the foot, experimentally, of Mount Sinai. Under the experience of Elder R. A. Biggs, the writer says:
"God, never brings one in this condition without also taking him from it, and so his feet were taken from the mire of sin, his goings established, a new song put in his mouth even praises to God. Jesus was revealed to him..."
This writer (mid to late 1800's) apparently was still a believer in the "Beebe-Trott Model" of the "new birth." I have not yet found a source, in the early to mid 1800's, that has demonstrated that any Hardshell founding father disagreed with this model. Consider also that this view was the one constantly put forth and defended in the only paper (excet perhaps the old "Primitive Baptist" magazine put out from Raleigh, N.C. in the 1830's, possibly 1840's, and not to be confused with the other "Primitive Baptist" magazine later began in the late 1800's by Elder S. F. Cayce; but, more on this later) the first Hardshells had as a "means" of promulgating their many "anti isms." I hope I can later pinpoint the exact time when the "Beebe-Trott" model of the "new birth" was discarded, along with the belief that "conversion" was necessary for eternal salvation and a part of the "new birth."
No "Conditionalist" Hardshell today will accept the view that all the elect will be brought out of conviction of sin to a conversion experience through the gospel, whereby they are, as Trott said, "made spiritual," and "born again," where they first come to have faith in Christ Jesus. It is thus obvious that the first Hardshells were not of the faith and variety of their modern day fifth generation Hardshells.
I tend to agree with the first Hardshell forefathers, in this regard: anyone who truly experiences conviction with deep repentance, will be brought to a view of the Savior and made to embrace him as such. But, I have all through this work contended, and personally to my dad also, that it is I who am more "Primitive" and "Original" in my views than are today's professing "Primitives"! I suppose that is why none want to come forth today, as Potter and Daily, and debate the old question, "Who Are The Primitive Baptists"?
Notice God's interrogative by Isaiah:"Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God." (Isaiah 66: 9)
On this verse, wrote John Gill:
"Ver. 9. Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth, saith the Lord?.... Or, "to the place of breaking" forth of children, as in Ho 13:13, the womb, and the mouth of it: or, "shall I break or open" that, so some {s} render it; lest too much should or seem to be attributed to the Church, she being said to travail in birth, and bring forth children, this is said by the Lord. The church may pray, and her ministers preach, and both be said to travail in birth, but it is the Lord that brings to it; regeneration is not the work of man, but of God; it is he that beget, again, quickens, renews, and sanctifies; it is he that begins the work of grace in regeneration, in real and thorough convictions of sin; which are right when men are convinced of the impurity of their nature, the exceeding sinfulness of sin, have a godly sorrow for it, and forsake it: the work is begun when souls feel the burden of sin; the inward struggling, of grace and corruption; a want of spiritual food, and hunger after it; desires after spiritual things, and a glowing love and affection for them; and when light is infused, faith, fear, and love produced, and every other grace implanted; and he that has begun the good work will perform it; as Jarchi rightly gives the sense of the clause,"shall I begin a thing, and not be able to finish it?'' no, he is a rock, and his work is perfect, as in creation and redemption, so in regeneration and conversion; as may be concluded, from his power to effect it, and his promise to do it; the grace of Christ, and the indwelling of the Spirit; the impotency of everything to hinder it, and the glory of the three divine Persons concerned in it. As in the natural birth it is he that gives strength to conceive, forms the embryo in the womb, ripens it for the birth, and takes the child out of its mother's womb; so he does all that answers hereunto in the spiritual birth. Shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb, saith thy God? no, I will not. As God has regenerated many souls in the first times of the Gospel, and many more since, in various nations, in each of the ages and periods of time; so he has not ceased, nor will he cease from this work, until all his elect are born again; for everyone that is chosen of the Father, given to the Son, taken into covenant, and redeemed by his blood, shall be begotten again to a lively hope of a glorious inheritance; God will not shut the womb of conversion until they are all brought to faith in Christ, and repentance towards God. He will beget many more sons and daughters; and he will cause the fulness of the Gentiles to be brought forth and brought in, and convert his ancient people the Jews; all his promises shall be performed, and all prophecies relating to these things shall be accomplished." (Commentary)
It seems to me that Beebe and Trott, and the first Hardshells, held this view. If the Hardshells want to go back to this "model," they will be a whole lot closer to the truth of the Bible on this topic and more "Primitive."
CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE by Samuel Trott
"My objections to certain relations of experiences to which I have reference is not that I think the persons not subjects of grace, but that they have missed stating the exercises in which they were brought, first to exercise faith in Christ, and have stated other things as those which they look to as constituting their deliverance, which in themselves afford no evidence of faith in Christ. Take, for instance, the communication of Brother Burroughs in the last (or sixth) number of the Signs (1845). From some things which he states as being the ground of his trust, etc., I hope the Spirit has taught him and applied the gospel consolations to his mind. But I should not be able to draw any such conclusion from what he relates as constituting his change; namely: that he was greatly distressed, and from what he says, this distress mostly arose from an apprehension that the time was about to pass in which he could be saved, and that this distress went off and was succeeded by a pleasant and cheerful sensation. The magicians of Egypt can produce as great a miracle, or as good an experience as such would be. Mere natural men are capable of being excited to just such exercises. They can be so alarmed as to be greatly distressed at the idea that their supposed, or rather fictitious, day of grace is passed, or about to pass. And it requires but little attention to the workings of nature to know that these excited feelings are very apt to subside during a nap of sleep, or even from mere exhaustion, and that they are naturally succeeded, like any other pain, by a pleasant feeling; and it is easy for the imagination, as in the case of the front-bench converts, to draw the conclusion that this great change of feeling is an evidence that they have got religion. It is no wonder that this excites them to as great a pitch of joy as they were before to that of grief. I feel sorry to see such things given as a relation of experience among Old School Baptists:
First, because, as in the case above referred to, there being grounds to hope that they are subjects of grace, I feel sorry to see the children of God so bewildered as to their deliverance, and as having no clearer evidence to their minds, to refer to at times, of their having passed from death to life. I know how to pity them, having been in like situation; from not having been conversant with clear, experimental persons, and not having heard discriminating, experimental gospel preaching, when Christ was revealed in me to the apprehending of Him by faith as a Saviour suiting my case, I had no idea that the exercise I had at that time was a being born again, or a first believing in Christ with that faith which is the gift of God. The exercise was something new and made a deep impression on my mind, but I considered it only as an evidence given me that I was truly a subject of religion, as I had most of the time before for three or four years hoped I was. And when I went to offer to a Baptist church, I had no idea of relating this exercise as an evidence of my being a believer or a fit subject of baptism, though I think something of it was drawn from me in their questioning me. But my own statement was similar to what I had made to the church session when I joined the Presbyterians some years before; that I had been impressed with a desire to be religious and to serve God, etc., with the addition of some of my ups and downs since, and the manner of my being convinced concerning believer's baptism, etc. It was not under fifteen months after that I had an idea of that exercise being that in which I was first brought to know Christ crucified and to believe on Him; so completely had my mind been bewildered by the muddy preaching I had been accustomed to, but then it was so showed to me that the thing appeared plain. And from that day to this I have known when and how I was taught the way of salvation for poor, condemned, helpless sinners, as I then was, through a crucified Jesus; and I know that man had no hand in teaching it to me, that I never learned it from reading nor preaching. Yet I have since passed through many dark seasons as to my interest in Christ, and to this hour have many doubts, from the awful corruptions within me, whether I can be a subject of grace, or whether my spot is the spot or exercises of God's children.
I feel sorry because such relations unnoticed make it appear as though the experience of Old School Baptists is nothing more than that of camp-meeting converts.
Because such unexplained statement are calculated to deceive inexperienced persons as to what an experience of grace consist in. Yet, I blame not this brother, nor others similarly circumstanced, seeing he is located where he can have but little intercourse with such as know what gospel experience is, for embracing the privilege of stating, through the Signs, what he had been led to look to as his conversion, doing it, as he evidently does, with a desire to be instructed in the way of God more perfectly, or, if he is deceived, to be undeceived. But in such cases I think it important that some one should be ready to act the part of Aquila and Priscilla; and my volunteering to do this is what may subject me to the charge of setting myself up as the standard of gospel experience. And it might have savored a little more of humility for me to have waited for some other one to step forward; in other similar cases which have occurred, I did wait, but in vain.
As to a standard, my wish is to make the Scriptures the standard of Christian experience, as I have ever aimed to set them forth as the only standard of gospel doctrine. As I have freely objected to the relation this brother gave of his experience, it is incumbent on me to show what it is that makes one manifest as a subject of salvation, according to the New Testament. For brevity's sake I shall touch only those points which might be questioned. A coming to Christ is admitted as necessary by all professors. I will, therefore, here show that Christ has said that none can come unto Him except they are taught of God. The words are, "No man can come to Me except the Father which hath sent Me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me, etc.," (John 6:44-45). Thus He evidently represents the drawing and teaching as the same thing. Teaching has to do with the mind, not the animal feelings; it is an instructing of the judgment, or a giving of understanding to the thing taught. But God's teaching is not like man's, a mere enlightening of the head whilst the heart is untouched. It is a revelation of truth in the heart, so that the affections are arrested; there is a heart-feeling of the truth taught, and a heart-love for it. To come to Christ, or to be believers on Him, we must know Him in His true character as the Saviour of sinners; as said he that had been blind: "Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on Him?" (John 9:36). Thus to know Him, we must know what it is to be sinners in God's account. "By the law is the knowledge of sin." "The law is spiritual." Spiritual life is, therefore, first imparted to give spiritual discernment or understanding, and the commandment then comes, that is, the person, under the divine teaching, is made to understand its force and special application to himself, condemning him and all his seeking and doing; and ultimately he is made to know (if not, as in some cases, at once) its spirituality and exceeding broadness to the thoughts and intents of the heart. He then knows why he is distressed; the curse of God's law stands against him; all his former hopes and expectations of doing anything to obtain the favor of God are cut off, and he lies helpless and dead under the righteous sentence of the law. Were it not that the Spirit in that case helpeth his infirmities, making intercession for him with groanings which cannot be uttered, that is, leading him to lift up his heart to God in desires for mercy, if it can be extended to a wretch so vile, he would be silenced in dead despair. Ask this person now what distresses him; his answer will be not that his time for obtaining salvation is passed, but that he is such a sinner against God that he sees not how any salvation can be for him, consistent with justice. Nothing which he has sever (sic - never?) learned of Christ from reading or from hearing of preaching reaches his case. He cannot believe on Him, for he knows not His fullness of grace and truth, neither can he know Him till God teaches him the knowledge of Him. But when the Father thus teaches him, or the Spirit takes of Christ's and shows to him, he understands the mystery of salvation through Christ crucified, views Him as the Lamb which God had provided for a sacrifice to His justice in the room of the guilty, condemned sinner. He now sees how he can be saved consistent with justice and how the mercy and promises of God can come to a wretch like him; and from this time his trust is fixed on a crucified, risen Jesus, and he has hope towards God and approaches Him as a Father (Ephesians 1:13 and 1 Peter 1:3). Now he will rejoice even unto tears, and knows what occasion he has for rejoicing in God his Saviour. The knowledge he now has of Christ as the Way of salvation is altogether different from what he had before conceived of; and the purpose of God, as he now sees it, of saving polluted, helpless sinners, instead of such as can help themselves, and the salvation of Christ being so fully and exactly adapted to the case of such, is all new to him and all lovely and glorious, reflecting a glory upon all the ways and works of God around him. Can a man be taught these things of God and not know that his views of himself and his views of Christ and his expectations of acceptance with God are all new, all different, from what they once were, and that they are what he never learned of men?
The Spirit had probably implanted in Brother Burroughs the principle of life, causing a desire after God before the exercises he speaks of; but it may not have been till some time after this that he was truly drawn to Christ. I think if he will review his past experience there will be brought to his recollection a time when the awful depravity of his heart was so laid open to his view as to make him feel the justice of his condemnation, and the utter impossibility of anything good or acceptable to God coming from him; so that all idea of seeking salvation on his part was excluded; "Lord, save or I perish", was his cry in substance. Again, that in reading the Scriptures, or in hearing preaching, or in some passage of Scripture being presented and opened to his mind, he had a view of Christ crucified as a foundation just suited for such a condemned and helpless sinner to lean upon and trust to for salvation; and that since that time his hope of acceptance with God has not been from his determination to seek, but wholly through Christ and His finished work; and since then, it has been that he has known something of the God of Israel's opening rivers in high places, etc., for the poor and needy when everything else fails and they cry to Him. This revelation of Christ in him may have been at once by an opening up of the Scriptures to him, or it may have been more gradually that his mind was enlightened to understand the way of salvation.
The exercises which he related are such as are frequent with persons under a work of grace, by which Satan tries to settle them down on something short of Christ. Besides, being led by a way we know not, we are apt to look for a resting-place short of the proper one.
The position I have taken relative to this subject will, I think, be admitted by every reflecting Christian as the Scriptural one when he considers that the promises of salvation run alone through faith in Christ, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36 and Mark 16:16). And that faith implies a knowledge of Christ, and this knowledge evidently is only from being taught of God. "No man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him" (Luke 10:22). I hope this brother, on a re-examination, will be able to tell us something of what he has learned of Jesus and of His saving power.
(Elder Samuel Trott, 1845, Centreville, Fairfax County, VA)
(http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Lake/8890/grace/experimentally.html)
Observations
1. Trott was being somewhat overly gracious about the brother's "evidences of 'regeneration'."
2. For Trott, evidence of "regeneration" was one thing, evidence for the "new birth" was another.
3. Beebe and Trott, and the first Hardshells, believed that conviction of sin was an "evidence" (result) of the "first stage" in the "birth process," what they call "quickening" or "implanting" of the divine "seed" (some metaphysical substance that they, nor any other Hardshell, has ever been able to adequately define), yet this "implanting" did not mean the person had been yet "born again" or made a "spiritual" person.
4. They spoke of the birth as equated with conversion, with evangelic faith and repentance; this brother (Burroughs), though convicted, though "implanted" and "quickened," is still not yet "born of the Spirit" nor "washed in the blood" of Jesus!
5. Modern Hardshells, excepting "Absoluters," reject this first Hardshell paradigm on the "new birth."
6. Hardshells are hereby challenged to bring forth the evidence of any Hardshell, in the early to mid 1800's, who rejected this view of the "new birth."
7. Historically speaking, Hardshells ultimately cut off one leg of the original two legged view of the "new birth." They did away with the "three stages" view, rejecting the idea that gospel "conversion" is any part of what it means to be "born again." They did retain the "direct speaking" view of the "new birth." They rejected the equation - regeneration + conversion = new birth, yet this was the view of their forefathers and founders. Conversion was a necessary post-regeneration experience for all the elect, according to the "founders," but not for their descendents.
8. To Beebe, Trott, and the first Hardshells, those "three stages" constituted the elect's "experience of grace," his "going from law to gospel."
9. Trott affirmed, like all the Old and Original Baptists, that the phrase "come to Christ," meant all the same as to "believe on him." I have shown in earlier chapters how this has consistently been the view of the Baptists throughout their history. It is a "gospel experience."
10. We must look to a later date in history for today's Hardshell views on the new birth and on conversion. I believe we must look to a date after about 1860 before we can see the departure from the first well received view of Beebe and Trott. But, more on this later.
A "Reformed" Writer wrote:"The Bible teaches that in regeneration the person does absolutely nothing; the person is totally passive."
I will show, in upcoming chapters, where this is a crucial mistake made by the "Hyper Calvinist." This "reformer" has narrowed his view and definition of "regeneration" to denote simply the initial move of the Spirit upon a soul, referring strictly to that part of regeneration where the sinner is said to be "passive," and excluding all "active voice" terms from the meaning of "regeneration."
Though modern Hardshells reject the "three phase model" of the "new birth," except for some "Absoluters," many in the Hyper Reformed community have kept it alive.
He writes:
"This, of course, does not mean that man does not cooperate in later stages of the work of redemption. It is quite evident from Scripture that he does."
Regeneration is an act of God upon man’s heart. "The Holy Spirit comes and does something to the soul of man...He penetrates into the innermost recesses of man, into his soul, spirit, or heart."
"How the Holy Spirit changes man’s nature is mysterious. It is clear that man’s subtance or essence is not changed. There is no metaphysical change in man."
"In an instantaneous act the Holy Spirit implants in man the principle of a new, spiritual life. This change is so radical that the Bible refers to it as a new birth, regeneration, and a quickening."
"The second aspect of the change which the Holy Spirit effects upon man’s heart is one of renovation. The scriptural terms used to describe man’s spiritual birth are "born again" (Jn. 3:3), "regeneration" (Tit. 3:5), and "made alive" or "quickened" (Eph. 2:5). The person regenerated by God is called a "new creation" (Gal. 6:15, 2 Cor. 5:17), and a "new man" (Eph. 4:24). This aspect is represented in the heart of stone becoming a heart of flesh (Ezek. 32:2), and the uncircumcised heart becoming a circumcised heart (Col. 2:11). Jesus Christ referred to the new birth as being "born of the Spirit" (Jn. 3:5-6). The Apostle Paul calls it a "renewing of the Holy Spirit" (Tit. 3:5)."
"The regenerating power of the Holy Spirit enables the sinner to see, hear and live; therefore, after regeneration the sinner can repent and turn to Christ. Conversion is the fruit, not the cause of regeneration."
"Regeneration is the beginning, the starting point, the fountain of all the saving graces which are subjectively applied to the sinner. When Jesus told Nicodemus, "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (Jn. 3:6), He was saying that being born again invariably will lead to a person becoming a spiritual person. Regeneration will without fail lead to conversion."
"The person who is regenerated by the Holy Spirit embraces Jesus Christ because he wants to. After he is regenerated, Christ becomes the most important person in his life. The Savior becomes to him like a hidden treasure and a pearl of great price (Mt. 13:44, 46)."
"After the Holy Spirit regenerates a man’s heart, it is impossible for that man not to respond to the preaching of God’s Word. Regeneration always leads to conversion. "Regeneration is the act of God and of God alone. But faith is not the act of God; it is not God who believes in Christ for salvation, it is the sinner. It is by God’s grace that a person is able to believe but faith is an activity on the part of the person and of him alone. In faith we receive and rest upon Christ alone for salvation."
"Are there not passages of Scripture which teach that regeneration is not an act of God in which man is totally passive? Does not the Bible teach that regeneration is dependent upon hearing the Word of God?"
"There are passages in Scripture which, if superficially considered, appear to contradict the point established above, that regeneration is solely an act of God in which man does not cooperate. These passages are found in 1 Peter, James and Romans. "Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever" (1 Pet. 1:23). "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth" (Jas. 1:18 KJV). "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17). Having already noted that the Bible teaches the total spiritual inability of man apart from regeneration (cf. Gen. 2:17, 6:5; Ps. 14:2-3; Pr. 20:9, 21:4; Isa. 6:9-10, 65:1; Jer. 17:9, 13:23; Ezek. 11:19, 16:6, 36:26, 44:9; Mk. 4:12, 7:20, 23; Lk. 8:10; Jn. 1:4-5; 3:3, 6, 19-20; 8:43-44, 47; Acts 7:51, 26:17-18; Rom. 1:21, 28, 3:11, 8:6-8, 10:20; 1 Cor. 2:14, 3:20-21; 2 Cor. 4:34; Eph. 2:1-5; 2 Tim. 2:26; 2 Pet. 2:13, 14, 22; etc.) and that regeneration is a sovereign work of God upon man in which man does not cooperate (Jn. 1:13; 3:5, 8; Ezek. 36:25-26; Tit. 3:5; Col. 2:11; Eph. 2:5), how are we to explain the texts which connect regeneration with hearing the Word of God?
"The answer lies in the simple fact that regeneration is viewed in Scripture from two different perspectives. Many passages discuss what Reformed theologians call the first stage of regeneration. During this stage "There is no co-operation of the sinner in this work whatsoever. It is the work of the Holy Spirit exclusively, Ezek. 11:19; John 1:13; Acts 16:14; Rom. 9:16; Phil. 2:13." The Holy Spirit comes to a man who is dead, blind and deaf to spiritual truth and quickens him, implanting new life into the dead heart. The inner disposition of the soul is renewed and made holy. "In this act of God the ear is implanted that enables man to hear the call of God to the salvation of his soul. This is regeneration in the most restricted sense of the word. In it man is entirely passive." During the first stage of regeneration the Holy Spirit works without means; that is, He works directly upon the soul apart from the preaching of the Word.
The second stage of regeneration, spoken about by Peter (1 Pet. 1:23), describes the point in time when regeneration issues forth into conversion. "Having received the spiritual ear, the call of God in the gospel is now heard by the sinner, and is brought home effectively to the heart. The desire to resist has been changed to a desire to obey, and the sinner yields to the persuasive influence of the Word through the operation of the Holy Spirit. This is the effectual calling through the instrumentality of the word of preaching, effectively applied by the Spirit of God. This effectual calling finally secures, through the truth as a means, the first holy exercises of the new disposition that is born in the soul. The new life begins to manifest itself; the implanted life issues in the new birth. This is the completion of the work of regeneration in the broader sense of the word, and the point at which it turns into conversion."
"Thus, the first stage of regeneration can be compared to the implantation of a seed, and the second stage could be compared to giving birth. During the second stage God employs means: the preaching of the gospel."
"The idea that regeneration occurs in two stages is both scriptural and logical. The Arminian or semi-Pelagian view of regeneration, which has man begetting himself by cooperating with the Holy Spirit’s influence during the preaching of the gospel, is a complete denial of the doctrine of man’s total depravity and inability as a result of the fall (cf. Jn. 5:42; Rom. 3:9-18; 7:18, 23; 8:7; 2 Tim. 3:4). Man is spiritually dead; therefore, regeneration logically proceeds or is coterminous with the preaching of the gospel. The preaching of the gospel, which can only work upon man’s conscious mind, has no persuasive power over a corpse. But once God opens the heart through regeneration, the regenerated person can and will believe the gospel. "The Lord opened her [Lydia’s] heart to heed the things spoken by Paul" (Acts 16:14). Furthermore, if regeneration can only occur through the preaching of the gospel, how then are elect infants who die in infancy saved?"
"It is obvious from 1 Peter 1:23 itself that Peter rejects the concept of decisional regeneration. There are two elements spoken of: the incorruptible seed which is implanted in the soul by the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God which is the instrumental means for the second stage of regeneration—conversion. "Those who believe in His name...were born [aorist passive indicative], not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (Jn. 1:12-13). Since Peter "refers to regeneration in a broad sense, then the passage offers no difficulty whatsoever in connection with the matter under consideration."
(http://www.reformedonline.com/view/reformedonline/newbirth.htm)
Footnotes:
"[1] The word “regeneration,” which literally means “to beget again,” has been used by orthodox Protestant theologians in different ways over time. The older usage in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries included the Holy Spirit’s implantantion of new life in man’s heart as well as conversion (repentance and faith) and sanctification. In order to avoid confusion Reformed theologians eventually narrowed their usage of the term regeneration to its strict biblical usage alone. “In present day Reformed theology the word ‘regeneration’ is generally used in a more restricted sense, as a designation of that divine act by which the sinner is endowed with new spiritual life, and by which the principle of that new life is first called into action” (L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1949], p. 467). Passages such as 1 Pet. 1:23 and Jas 1:18 discuss the regenerated heart as it comes in contact with the Word of God, “in which the new life first becomes manifest” (ibid., p. 475). Because most of the biblical passages which deal with regeneration define it in its strictest sense as solely an act of God, this narrow definition is used throughout this booklet (cf. objection 4, p. 15)."
"17] Ibid., p. 475. Rom. 10:17 speaks of the necessity of first hearing the gospel, for people to have faith in Christ. Paul is saying that saving faith requires that people have a certain knowledge of the truth; that is, they must know who Christ is and what He has done. In order for a man to have faith, he must have an object to have faith in. As a seed that is planted needs water to grow, the regenerate heart needs the Word of God in order to exercise faith toward Jesus Christ. Faith is impossible without an object of faith. Regeneration in the first stage always (except in the case of elect infants) issues forth into conversion. The implantation of the incorruptible seed and the hearing of the gospel both are necessary for salvation." (Ibid)
Answering the "Reformer"
1. There is no New Testament distinction made in the new birth, whereby one goes through various stages, each with its distinct name and term. The only passage that even comes close to affirming this model is the passage in Isaiah 66: 9, cited above and from which Gill seems to promote the same "model." Thus, in actuality, Beebe and Trott, and the "Reformed Community," must look back to the days of Gill, at least, for the genesis of this novel theory on the "new birth."
2. This "reformer" makes a frank admission, saying - "The older usage in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries included the Holy Spirit’s implantantion of new life in man’s heart as well as conversion (repentance and faith) and sanctification." Thus, he admits that this "three stage" model was not the view of the Old Baptists and "Reformers."
3. He also candidly admits that "reformed theologians eventually narrowed their usage of the term regeneration to its strict biblical usage alone." There is both truth and error in this statement. Yes, the "reformed" and "hair-splitting" theologians, have "narrowed" the definition of the term "regeneration." They narrowed it from its scriptural broader definition and from the broader and scriptural definition which the Old Baptists, as Kiffin, Knollys, Keach, etc., used the term. Which are we to accept?
The Heresy Of Gospel Regeneration! by W.E.Best
"One of the greatest blunders, on the subject of the new birth, is to make it dependent on man’s faith. Opposers of Biblical Regeneration advocate the new birth must, in some way, be the response of one who hears the gospel! Such verses as James 1:18 & 1 Peter 1:23, are used to prove their theory: but the “exegesis” of the two texts demands no such conclusion. James 1:18 does not refer to “begetting or conception”, but “bringing forth or giving birth”.
Immediate regeneration does not deny that the new birth, in which the new life becomes manifest, is secured by response to the gospel; but distinction must be made between conception and birth. They are not the same."
"God’s act of giving spiritual life, to those who are spiritually dead, is distinct from the gospel; just as the faculty of sight is different from light. Quickening is an immediate and creative act."
"No instrumental means are used with God’s creative acts. The word does not produce life, but it is effective in those who possess life.
Life is responsive to living things. Nicodemus was told that he had to be “born again” before he could see. Once the faculty of sight is given; the recipient is guided, by the word to repentance and faith, leading to an initial conversion experience."
(http://www.gospelgrace.com/soteriology/HeresyGospelRegeneration.htm)
So, again, here are other Baptist Hyper Calvinistic groups who have adopted this unscriptural and un-Baptistic model. In the next chapters I hope to deal with this point further and to look closer at the scriptural "evidences" of "regeneration," versus those "evidences" that are denominated by today's Hardshells.
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